Are you an owner of a local business? Do you want to reach a wider audience? Try social media marketing! In this short guide, we’ll go through the advantages and best practices of social media marketing for local businesses.

What is social media marketing?

Social Media Marketing is a new form of marketing that rose to prominence due to the popularity of social media websites. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and others are attracting billions of users and businesses aren’t missing out on this opportunity.

Businesses from all areas have a solid presence online in the form of business profiles that seek to promote products and services.

Why is social media marketing successful?

Wait a minute, people go to social media platforms to connect with their friends, why would they be interested in a business profile? While that’s technically correct, social media apps have become so much more than mere platforms. People use them so much throughout the day that they even prefer shopping through them.

This makes advertising through social media platforms less intrusive and often yields much better results than traditional marketing channels such as email.

How can your local business get started?

Improving your online reputation is one of the main goals of social media marketing for local businesses. The first thing you have to consider is the platform you want to advertise on. You can always promote your local business on more than one but it’s better to expand once you’ve gathered some experience.

Choose the right platform

Choosing the right platform is all about reaching the right audience. For example, Facebook and Instagram have a wide range of age groups when compared to something like TikTok where the median is 10-19 years. Gen Z is often influenced more by a TikTok video than an ad on Instagram. Know your audience and you’ll have no problem choosing the proper platform.

Create an account

The next step after you’ve settled on a platform is to create your business profile. All popular social platforms have a separate account creation process for businesses that are looking to advertise on them.

Make sure you add all possible information regarding your business. This includes the exact address, phone number, email, website, and working hours. Depending on the platform, you’ll also be able to add a contact button so users can get directions from the app.

Upload a profile picture that is relevant to your business and what it does. The choice here can be as simple as going with your business logo. Write a short and concise description of your business using keywords and hashtags. If you have a business website, add a link to it as well.

Should you post photo or video content?

Both photos and videos can be effective for advertising on social media, but the best choice will depend on the specific goals and audience of the campaign.

Photos can be a good choice for advertising if the goal is to showcase a product or service in a visually appealing way, or if the audience is primarily interested in visuals over motion. Photos can also be more easily scanned and processed by the viewer, making it easier to convey information in a clear and concise way.

Videos can be a good choice for advertising if the goal is to tell a story, demonstrate how a product or service works, or convey a lot of information in a short amount of time. Additionally, videos are more engaging and can capture the attention of the viewer for longer.

Both photos and videos can be used in combination in an advertising campaign to reach a broader audience and achieve different goals. The use of both options in an advertisement will also allow for better reach and engagement with the target audience

What type of content should you post?

Social media marketing for local businesses is all about posting the right content. There’s usually no “best type” of content your business should post on social media. It all depends on the specific goals and your target audience. Here are some of the most popular formats that you can choose from and utilise to promote your local business:

Product or service information: Provide information about your products or services and how they can help solve customers’ problems or meet their needs. Feel free to add photos or videos to demonstrate how your products or services work.

Educational or informative content: Give users tips, advice, or industry-related news that can help educate and inform your audience. This type of content can help establish your business as an expert in your field.

Behind-the-scenes content: Share behind-the-scenes photos or videos of your products, services, or your team at work. This type of content can help you grow the connection between your business and your clients.

User-generated content: Your customers can be a great asset. Some of them will create content for your business without even knowing. Share customer reviews, and testimonials, or simply repost their content featuring your products or services. This can boost the trustworthiness of your brand and can help create social proof.

Engaging content: Interact with your audience with different quizzes, polls, or other interactive games. You can offer the winners a special discount or a prize to boost user engagement even further.

Live videos & AMAs: Live videos are becoming more and more popular, giving businesses an opportunity to create real-time engagement, build relationships, and provide value to their clients. AMAs can also serve as a transparent way of communicating with clients and answering popular questions.

As we’ve mentioned, there’s no one type of content to rule them all. Experiment with the different types and test which one works best for your business. And remember, be consistent with your posting schedule!

When Should You Post?

The best time to advertise on social media depends on the platform you’re using and your target audience. Still, there are some general guidelines that you can always consider. Note that the best time to advertise on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter is usually during the weekdays. While peak engagement between the platforms may differ, you can always learn from experience and find out what works for your business.

Other important key elements are the different industries, niches, and demographics, each having contrasting engagement patterns. Your best option would be to conduct specific research on your target audience and test the live performance of your ads during different days and hours.

Last but not least, don’t forget to consider the time zone of your audience when scheduling your ads. If you’re a business based in Europe and you want to attract clients from the United States, you’ll have to readjust your ads to fit the different time zones.

Best Practices

You’ve chosen the platform you want to advertise on, and you know the type of content you want to post. Now all that’s left is to streamline it and make it better. Here are some of the best practices to do that:

• Keep it consistent – If there’s one thing you have to consider it’s that your brand is how clients perceive you. To maintain a consistent visual brand and make an impact on your audience you can use the same or similar filters on all your posts. Additionally, when creating graphics or promotional posts, choose a few key colours that represent your brand. This consistency will help build brand recognition and make your followers familiar with your brand’s visuals, vibe, and voice.

• Add captions – There’s one simple rule to success, grab the attention of your audience. This can be achieved with an eye-grabbing photo, video, or caption. Out of the trio, captions are often neglected but they can be used to send a powerful message relevant to your brand. Good captions can showcase the personality and unique voice of your business. Don’t just post content, put your back into it and add some flavour text that enhances it and makes it better in every way.
• Use hashtags – Whether we like it or not, hashtags are everywhere. We just said captions are important and hashtags are a vital part of them. Trending hashtags can be used to ride the wave of popularity but creating a new hashtag for your business can give you even better results. Choose specific hashtags for your business and stick to them. Just make sure you don’t overdo it, hashtags are there to complement the captions not completely overtake them.
• Interact with your audience – One way to boost the presence of your business online is to simply interact with your audience. This goes beyond posting engaging content and extends to replying to user comments, responding to mentions, liking other users’ content, addressing concerns, and resolving issues.

Key Takeaway

Social media marketing for local businesses is a good choice for any local business because it allows owners to reach a large audience with minimal costs. In addition, social media platforms offer businesses a variety of ways to connect with potential customers and build brand awareness. When compared to other marketing channels, social media marketing is more cost-effective, and personal, letting businesses reach a large audience. Social media marketing has many benefits that come directly from the nature of social platforms, giving businesses of all sizes a new channel that allows them to build their digital identity in an organic way.

About Magic

Magic is the easy to use, all-in-one marketing and communications platform for the modern local business who wants to manage online reviews and conversations, grow revenue and nurture customer relationships.

Grow your local business with Magic:

• Get more reviews and win repeat customers
• Enhance your customer communication experience
• Drive more sales with instant text campaigns
• Get repeat sales and grow your customer list

Looking to grow your local business? Book in a demo call now. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook